


Vorkosiverse DVD Commentaries.

by Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels)



Series: Meta, DVD Commentaries, and Miscellany [5]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: DVD Commentary, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-12
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-04-28 10:35:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14447472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannamichaels/pseuds/Lanna%20Michaels
Summary: DVD commentaries of Vorkosigan fic.





	1. Petya 'Verse: Therefore Rejoice meta

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Therefore Rejoice.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/150588) by [Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannamichaels/pseuds/Lanna%20Michaels). 
  * Inspired by [Storytelling.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/185800) by [Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannamichaels/pseuds/Lanna%20Michaels). 
  * Inspired by [Dance Me To Your Beauty With A Burning Violin.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/391096) by [Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannamichaels/pseuds/Lanna%20Michaels). 
  * Inspired by [Vorbarra For America.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/430578) by [Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannamichaels/pseuds/Lanna%20Michaels). 
  * Inspired by [Inheritance.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/119615) by [Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannamichaels/pseuds/Lanna%20Michaels). 
  * Inspired by [The Hospital Visit.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/125800) by [Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannamichaels/pseuds/Lanna%20Michaels). 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/691935.html?thread=4968671#cmt4968671

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **[](https://philomytha.dreamwidth.org/profile)[ **philomytha**](https://philomytha.dreamwidth.org/)** :
> 
> How about a Padma and Petya and Aral bit?  
>  __  
> And now Aral's the hero of the Escobaran defeat, but the situation is still the same. If they'd had any idea of when Aral would be released from his duty of cleaning up the last of the retreat and negotiating the treaties, maybe they could have delayed the wedding so that Aral could stand here, so that Aral could be the one in front of Padma trying not to show how nervous he is, so that Aral could stand as Second and bear witness.
> 
>  
> 
> _But he's not here. Aral's baby is standing here instead of him._
> 
>  
> 
> _Well, it serves Aral right, damn him to hell. Padma's spent half his life standing as Aral's Second. If he'd known that was what it meant at the wedding, that he would be adopting Petya as his younger brother, nearly as his son, that he was setting himself up for talking Petya out of trying to stow away on one of Aral's ships when he was barely old enough to understand what duty meant; or inviting himself to stay over at Vorkosigan House during Winterfair break one year when Aral'd had three months home leave and spent maybe three days of it both sober and with his son and Petya had needed someone to put him to bed, someone who wasn't the Count, someone who wouldn't expect him to stand up straight and be the proper Vor Lord and not cry; or who would listen to him talk about Carl Vorhalas and would talk him out of blaming himself when that boy decided that dealing with constant political intrigue at the preparatory academy was enough and he wasn't going to try for a commission and even more political intrigue, and then, the very next night, talk Petya out of withdrawing his own application for the Academy... well, it serves Aral damn right._
> 
>  
> 
> _This is just the next turn of the page. Now it's Padma who's getting one relative when he really needs a different one._
> 
>  
> 
> _"No objections, cadet," Padma says sternly. Petya straightens reflexively, then glares at him._
> 
>  
> 
> _"I like it better when you scolded me by calling me Lord Piotr," Petya says. "You sounding like General Vorpatril is going to give me nightmares, I just know it."_
> 
>  
> 
> _Better that than the nightmares Petya already has. And if they're picking and choosing nightmares, Padma would prefer those, too, instead of Serg and that damn shark smile and that cold voice, pressing onward, pressing further, demanding everything._

Ha, so when I went to open the fic, I _got the name wrong_ , because it's Padma and politics, so it must be Party Politics, which I wept over, but then that was wrong, because, yeah, the Padma fic Party Politics never got finished, so I stole the title for an Ivan one instead. Right, so this one is [Therefore Rejoice](http://archiveofourown.org/works/150588), the one where Padma is introspective and political at his wedding, not Gregor's Birthday.

That illustrates basically everything about this fic: it's about Padma as being completely aware of everything that's going on, and doing thing his way anyway. The other one was about Padma as Aral's Vor eyes and ears on the Vor, which is my headcanon for what Padma was doing on Aral's staff, so when he goes off during the party, he's completely on duty. I have all these views about everything going on under the currents of that party, because all of the politics going around must be thick in the air. But our POV character isn't sensitive to them. So this was a different POV character.

The timing of Padma's wedding is -- and I think we've talked about this before? -- totally up for interpretation. Here I'm going with it happening right after Escobar, after a long engagment, meaning that Alys got pregnant relatively early on in their marriage. Since Alys is 25 in Barrayar, though, maybe I might have put this earlier, with Alys and Padma getting married right after Gregor's born. This is under the assumption that Barrayaran Vor society does not take well to a 24 year old single woman.

But here it is after Escobar, and the timeline on that _maybe_ could mean that Aral was present at the wedding, but it probably doens't fit. So Aral can't be there. The issue of Seconds is an interesting one, I think. It's just like in a duel, having a Second. I figure the Second has a lot of legal and historical rights and responsibilities, and that these days, no, you're not forced to marry the widow, but you still do have cultural and personal responsibilities in case something happens; you may not have to adopt the orphans, but you have to make sure they're cared for.

So the choice of the Second is not just "who do you want to stand by you at your wedding", it's "who do you want to stand by your family for the rest of their life". And for Aral, that obvious choice is Padma, and for Padma, it's Aral. But Aral's not there, so it goes down the family tree until it hits Petya, who is aware of the supreme responsibility and also aware of how it looks: Xav's descendants standing together. And so's Padma, but right now, thanks to Serg being dead, that's not a danger. And they would both prefer it to be Aral, but that can't happen.

_Well, it serves Aral right, damn him to hell. Padma's spent half his life standing as Aral's Second._

And so here we go, everything Padma's done because Aral was off planet. Because Padma has a familial responsibility to Petya, but he also was his father's second, so there's that as well: not only can he talk with Aral's voice, he's supposed to. He's supposed to be the Aral surrogate when Aral can't be. This is cultural, of course, not legal: legally, it's Piotr. Padma's the Second, so he's uncle/father/cousin/brother/friend -- esentially, he's there to be a Responsible Adult when Aral isn't around to be that.

Padma's also about eleven years older than Petya, so it's a completely different dynamic than Petya and Ivan. Petya just does not have that many friends, he has *allies*, but Padma's a friend. Padma's also somebody he completely trusts, and somebody he can lean on. In every universe I've thought through where Padma has to do something horrible, Petya's been completely, unquestionnably on his side. I think he's more loyal to Padma than to anyone; it's one reason I've never been able to write Petya finding out Padma's dead. It's white noise to Petya, the end of the world. I don't think, in canon verse, he even remembers being told.

 

_Petya out of trying to stow away on one of Aral's ships when he was barely old enough to understand what duty meant_

Because Petya's Vor and Vor means duty and that means duty to the Emperor and that means being a soldier so, Padma, why can't I go? I'll be very quiet and small and do everything I'm told, like a good soldier! Why can't I go? I promise I'll be good!

 

_or inviting himself to stay over at Vorkosigan House during Winterfair break one year when Aral'd had three months home leave and spent maybe three days of it both sober and with his son and Petya had needed someone to put him to bed, someone who wasn't the Count, someone who wouldn't expect him to stand up straight and be the proper Vor Lord and not cry_

Oh, that one. That time. Yikes. 

This was basically the lead up to Petya and Aral's huge, terrible fight before Komarr, the one they had after Petya insulted one of Aral's prole proteges and after dinner, Aral told him off for it, and they just started screaming at each other, and Aral told him to remember that they're superior officers and need to be treated as such, and Aral's his superior too, so don't you dare talk to me like this, and Petya's all "why are they better than me? it's because they're soldiers, then? Fine, I will be the best soldier ever." Which, if Petya and Aral had been on the same planet and had enough time, they would have probably dealt with and all that, but they never really did completely put behind them all of the repercussions.

It's Petya beginning to realize that there is something wrong with *him*, that there's a cause and effect here and Petya has to be the cause, because he doesn't see any of the other triggers, he just sees the effect, so he must be the cause, it can't be his father becaus his father is perfect, and blaming himself and then getting angry at Aral for it and getting mad at himself. And the only way to fix that and be good enough is to show Aral he's the best soldier ever, excpt that he's just a kid, he's not a soldier yet. So he gets very jealous of the proteges Aral brings home, because he sees them as competition and it's a competition he can't win. 

And when Aral begins to realize that's why Petya's biting the heas off of people, he does try to fix it, but the problem is, neither of them really have time. Aral tries and Petya is prickly and then something comes up, so it gets pushed aside. They don't fix it; the only time they really could have was when Petya was home for a few years waiting for Piotr to die, and then other things just kept getting in the way, and Aral didn't see it as a priority, because Petya's goddamn forty by this point, he's not a teenager. And Petya pulls out the claws and attacks (that pre-end-of-Regency argument *really* got off on the wrong foot and Petya kept making it worse)... in a universe where Petya spends some time on Earth and then comes home, Cordelia points out to Aral that they really should fix this, because their expectations of each other keep getting tangled up. Aral wants Petya to be his son, but Petya treats him like a superior officer, or Aral wants Petya to be his junior office, but Petya treats him like his father. They're much too tangled up and talking past each other. (The one where Padma and Kareen survive and Petya comes home for mandated home leave after a few years ends up with Petya resigning his commission over how horribly tangled up they are.)

But here, it's Petya trying to be The Perfect Soldier Like His Father, and Aral realizing, too late, he has done to his son what his father did to him. Hell, even Miles salutes Aral, so Petya, without Cordelia around, didn't have much of a chance.

 

_or who would listen to him talk about Carl Vorhalas and would talk him out of blaming himself when that boy decided that dealing with constant political intrigue at the preparatory academy was enough and he wasn't going to try for a commission and even more political intrigue, and then, the very next night, talk Petya out of withdrawing his own application for the Academy_

I don't think Petya would have been *permitted* to do that, not with Piotr around, but Petya was in tears and panic and woe. Again, he has basically no close friends, and this is Carl (whose age I adjusted because, why not) leaving him.

If Petya had never become a soldier... I don't even know. There's really no options for him. He's Vor, it's his duty. Vorkosigans don't become town clowns, that's for other people, people who aren't good Vor.

We really barely see the other options for Vor, because canon is so focused on the military -- the Vor who aren't military (like Tien) are coded negatively, town clowns are wastes, etc. Even Bylerly, the "good" town clown, is actually not one. We don't really see high Vor men as doing things other than the military or government and that being a good thing. It's either soldiers or town clown. And I don't think Piotr would ever have allowed Petya to do something like go to university, get a degree in something and then use it to help the district. They're Vor, they're soldiers.

 

_Better that than the nightmares Petya already has. And if they're picking and choosing nightmares, Padma would prefer those, too, instead of Serg and that damn shark smile and that cold voice, pressing onward, pressing further, demanding everything._

I brushed over very lightly what actually happened when Petya and Padma were interrogated by Political Education. But Padma got tortured and hurt pretty badly. Later, in that Party Politics thing that never got finished or even settled on a POV, he says that the fast-penta was just for Serg's amusement; Serg wasn't interested in talking, he was interested in making a point. And he made it very well.


	2. Storytelling meta

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/691935.html?thread=5003487#cmt5003487

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [](http://avanti-90.livejournal.com/profile)[ **avanti_90**](http://avanti-90.livejournal.com/):
> 
> Here is my favorite bit from my favorite story of yours:
> 
> They will say only: Aral decided to stay at the front. And they will not say, because they do not know, that Padma giggled when Aral said goodbye and that Aral had smiled because, in all of this, there was someone who would need to be told about it all later, when there could be a later, and so they could make it all sound much more heroic and brave than it actually was, instead of a night of death and blood and gore and tears and pissing yourself in the woods, and a baby crying because he hadn't been fed, and so many lives destroyed that it defied counting, and Aral Vorkosigan, at eleven, choosing to stay with the adults.
> 
> And, in this story, Padma will always be the baby, and Armsman Karev will always carry him out of the nursery while others covered them with stunner fire and four men and eight women died to buy their lives, and, when telling this story, they will always say that everyone died bravely. And they will never talk about the smell or how Padma's nurse died shielding him with her body, and they will always say, only, that Padma's life was saved by not being with his parents that night.
> 
> But sometimes they will say how close Yuri came to succeeding that night and sometimes they will talk about the boat on the water and the patrols on the bridges above the river and they might, at times, joke with Aral about getting sea sick, when the mood is very dark and the night is darker still.
> 
> Perhaps one day Aral will tell Padma that he thought he would never see him again, and perhaps one day Xav will tell Piotr that he forgives him for his choices, and perhaps one day everyone who lived through that night will have died and the only stories left are the ones they spoke of to others, instead of the truths they may have spoken to each other, and maybe some day, this will become just a story in a book somewhere, something far off and maybe a little romantic and certainly historical, how a war got started, but nothing like it was.

I have such a soft spot for [Storytelling](http://archiveofourown.org/works/185800) as well. :D

This entire thing got its kick from me reading up on audio descriptions. The way one of the things was written was in the lines of "they don't know that" and "does it matter that", which was a really great way of talking about it. So that inspired those aspects.

What people talk about and what people don't talk about, and what we talk about when we talk about things, is something I'm very interested in; I actually wrote [another fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9432) along those lines as well. And, well, What Happens After You Get Out Of Hell is one of my big stories I keep telling over and over again, so this is one of those: what the survivors say and what they don't say, and what they say to the people who understand, and what they say to the people who never will.

It's also a question of narrative and of narrative bias and of human bias in telling stories: it's talking about the exciting stuff, not about the horrors. But this stuff is all about the horrors and how that bias means that war stories, especially on the Barrayar we see, are these great exciting things, things you reminisce about: Piotr being all "and then Xav made him take him down", but nothing about how he tortured somebody. And about how that changes your impressions of the character and of that character's character.

And it's the question of, well, does this stuff matter? What they left out, what they didn't want to talk about, how much does it matter? It probably matters a lot to them, but what of it if they don't want to talk about it? Well, they're perpetuating an idea that War Is Awesome, when their experiences are all War Is Hell, and considering their audiences, that's problematic. They're contributing to war being a romantic idea. But they're the survivors and this is part of surviving. So who's to say they have to talk about it all the time or to all audiences. Except that if they don't, and they're the eye witnesses, who will, especially once they're all dead.

So, this is about the horrors of that night and the stories told about it. It's about Aral assuming he's not going to live through this, so he stays at the front and tries to make a difference. It's about him -- and them all -- making that decision of making it all sound brave and glorious instead of the way it was, which is a night of death and blood and gore and all that. Becaues then it's a glorious story of victory, instead of a terrible story of sacrifice.

But sometimes they talk about it, when it's just them. That's Aral and Simon and Kou going off together, that's Piotr and his cronies. When you're around people who were there, there's no expectation of this being a *story*, you don't have to entertain somebody or make it all sound better than it was. It's, you know, Aral's line in canon to Kou about how statistics about civil war conceal the most reality, and it's true, and in this case, it's: the stories about civil war conceal the most reality.


	3. Piotr/Olivia meta

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted https://lannamichaels.livejournal.com/749760.html

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [](http://goldgirl201.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://goldgirl201.livejournal.com/) **goldgirl201** :
> 
> If you don't mind I'd love to get your thoughts on this from your Piotr/Olivia series:  
>  __  
> Mama thinks he's too violent and worries that Olivia might be better off if she went to Beta Colony for a while -- Mama says "go home", but Olivia was born here. This is her home. Mama wants to send her to Beta Colony so she'll forget the unsuitable boy and learn to want what Mama thinks she should and do everything Mama thinks she should and be the proper Betan daughter.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _Olivia has some very unladylike words she would like to say to that._
> 
>  
> 
> _Sonia thinks she's being stupid, but Sonia thinks the stars are romantic and much too far away. Olivia thinks they aren't far away enough, and tells Sonia that she'll grow out of it. Eventually. Maybe._
> 
>  
> 
> _Da and Mama spend all of Olivia's childhood arguing about her and what they should do with her. As far as Mama's concerned, Olivia needs to go to Beta. Mama always says she should have gone years ago, this planet doesn't know what to do with Princesses. Da says this planet knows exactly what to do with Princesses, and if Olivia wants to make a political match for herself, he doesn't see why she shouldn't. They're united that Piotr Vorkosigan is a terrible choice, but if Olivia decided to prefer someone like Pierre Vorrutyer or Ruslan Vordrozda, Da would suddenly be on her side in all of this. Mama is against all political matches on principle, while Da thinks they're fine so long as he approves._
> 
>  
> 
> _And Sonia's on Mama's side, so it works out perfectly as far as Olivia is concerned. Olivia can use her position exactly how she wants and Sonia can go to Beta Colony and be nobody and have nothing and wield no power. They can each have their own planet. Sonia can go find a home; Olivia already is home. Olivia will stay on Barrayar where she knows the gravity and the atmosphere. Sonia can find out if being third-born is as terrible socially on Beta Colony as Sonia secretly worries it might be._
> 
>  
> 
> _Mama talks about going home a lot. When she goes, Sonia will go with her. And maybe Da, too, if the Emperor lets him._
> 
>  
> 
> _But they'll have to tear Olivia's nails from this planet before they get her into one of those ships, before they take her away from the sunrises and the winding rivers and the horses. They don't have horses on Beta Colony. They barely have animals. Everything is so carefully planned there, everything is so controlled._
> 
>  
> 
> _Olivia would suffocate on a planet like that. The sky is much too close, the horizon tight all around you. Olivia can't imagine living on a world like that. She never wants to._

Oh, hello, LJ comment limit. I have been completely spoiled by DW.

[Dance Me To Your Beauty With A Burning Violin](http://archiveofourown.org/works/391096)! Or, the one where I basically remixed myself from a different POV. ;)

I find that entire generation of Barrayarans to be really fascinating, and I wish we knew more about the Piotr/Olivia relationship and just Olivia in general. We know her name, we know how she died, we know she redecorated, we know she had a saddle, this is about it. We know that her father and Piotr only got along long enough to win wars together, so it raises the question of how Olivia and Piotr ended up married. Was it arranged? Who arranged it? Was this some kind of favor to Piotr, was it a way of trying to control Piotr? Why did they get married and what was their marriage like? There are so many questions that come up once you posit that Piotr "Infaticide" Vorkosigan married the daughter of the man who kept trying to get him to stop being a war criminal.

So I have decided a few things about their relationship just for the sake of these things, and that's that, basically, Olivia thrives in the war environment. She has no idea what to do with herself in peace time and throws all that energy that she had fighting the Cetagandans into being Piotr's hostess and running the district and being political behind the scenes. Which is not that great for Uncle Yuri's nerves. 

_Mama thinks he's too violent and worries that Olivia might be better off if she went to Beta Colony for a while -- Mama says "go home", but Olivia was born here. This is her home. Mama wants to send her to Beta Colony so she'll forget the unsuitable boy and learn to want what Mama thinks she should and do everything Mama thinks she should and be the proper Betan daughter._

Oh, Xav's wife. Xav's wife and Barrayar. I WISH WE HAD A NAME FOR HER. Uh, moving on... it's the question of, where is your home. I've found that Word Of God that Cordelia goes back to Beta Colony after Aral dies to be sort of, um, making the assumption that Aral is the only reason Cordelia is saying on Barrayar. That Aral is her world, and once Aral dies, Cordelia has nothing left tying her to Barrayar, so she leaves to go back to her real home, where she came from. It strikes me too close to the idea that, after your husband dies, a woman goes back to her father's household.

But the thing is, the situation for women on Beta Colony is much better than on Barrayar, especially for Olivia's generation. (Cordelia is not really in this situation at all, but, yeah, this isn't about Cordelia right now). Olivia can only do this and can only have these freedoms because she's Princess Olivia and because her family allows it. Olivia is an important person who has a certain amount of control over her life, but she has privileges and opportunities that probably every woman on Beta Colony has, but only a handful on Barrayar do.

It makes it very easy, and probably too easy, for her to say things like this. She has a lot of privilege and she revels in it. Her mother, on the other hand, sees right through the veneer and she has the background to understand how precarious the situation is. 

Essentially, her mother wants what's best for her, but Olivia violently disagrees about what's best. And, yet, if she'd listened to her mother... it's that push and pull. Olivia has the freedom to make the choice, so she wants her choice respected. And her mother worrries that she's chosen wrong and if maybe she should stop her. But then she's taking away that choice.

 

Part 2:

_Da and Mama spend all of Olivia's childhood arguing about her and what they should do with her. As far as Mama's concerned, Olivia needs to go to Beta. Mama always says she should have gone years ago, this planet doesn't know what to do with Princesses. Da says this planet knows exactly what to do with Princesses, and if Olivia wants to make a political match for herself, he doesn't see why she shouldn't. They're united that Piotr Vorkosigan is a terrible choice, but if Olivia decided to prefer someone like Pierre Vorrutyer or Ruslan Vordrozda, Da would suddenly be on her side in all of this. Mama is against all political matches on principle, while Da thinks they're fine so long as he approves._

And Xav. Oh, Xav. Xav the progressive, but *what does that even mean*? We know he's against infanticide. We know he wants Piotr to stop being a war criminal. We know he was a diplomat and we know he was the leading light of the progressives and we know he smuggled weapons. But what does progressive mean, when we talk about Xav? He's more progressive than Piotr, but that doesn't mean much. There's a temptation to say "married a Betan, so by progressive, we mean Betan-ish", which I can see the merits of. But this is also someone who was born a Prince during the Time of Isolation and grew up while Dorca was conquering all the Counts.

So Xav's views on things are totally up for debate. I have decided that he would totally be willing to marry Olivia off to whoever was the best political match, and that Olivia is thinking along the same lines is good. But he doesn't like Piotr. So it's similar to the dynamic with Olivia's mother. Olivia's making a choice that makes sense politically, but Xav doesn't like it.

_Sonia can find out if being third-born is as terrible socially on Beta Colony as Sonia secretly worries it might be._

Children and Beta Colony is a big long thing. Seriously, they have economic tests, and they completely control your reproductive organs, bloody hell. And Sonia is third born, so to be born on Beta, her parents would have needed to get a special permit. It's not canonical that she's the youngest, just that she's younger than Olivia; for all we know, their brother is the youngest. (I decided the brother was the youngest for [Vorbarra For America](http://archiveofourown.org/works/430578).)

_Olivia would suffocate on a planet like that. The sky is much too close, the horizon tight all around you. Olivia can't imagine living on a world like that. She never wants to._

And here's the crux of it. Olivia likes Barrayar. Loves Barrayar. Unlike her mother, who still thinks of Beta Colony as home.

* * *

I can definitely see Piotr/Olivia as a reward for Piotr and a way to keep him in line. Before the war, the Vorkoisgan's District wasn't the richest, but it probably ranked up there; I can see Vorkosigan Vashnoi as being the third or fourth biggest city on the planet. The Vorkosigans were well-connected, not-rich-for-Vor-but-rich-for-everyone-else, and were ranked up there. And then the Cetagandan War and Vorkosigan's District is devastated. And meanwhile, the districts of those who were collaborators are *not* devastated, meaning that the immediate post-war situation Vor wise has got to be tense. And here's Piotr Vorkosigan, the great general, who has lost a whole lot in the war. Marrying him to Olivia is a way to make sure that the Vorkosigans don't become irrelevant, it's a way of saying that they're still players and that their loyalty is being rewarded.

Since I see Piotr as being Yuri's military apprentice, it's just another way of signalling to everyone that Dorca hasn't forgotten Piotr's family's loyalty and that loyalty remains rewarded.

And Piotr/Olivia is the one thing that has *kept* his family relevant in politics. By Shards/Barrayar, there are two Vorkosigans left, and still it's clear that they have a lot of power. Which is because of nepotism and being Piotr married Princess Olivia. It really does have repercussions.

And, yet... and, yet... we know basically nothing about Olivia herself. Pretty annoying for a woman who is the reason Aral has a better claim than Ezar does.

 

_Since he went to Beta probably quite young and spent possibly between 20-30 years out in the Nexus either as Ambassador or weapons smuggler,_

How long he was off planet is also an interesting question. We know he was a diplomat and he know he smuggled weapons, but we also know that he had three children and that he was around on Barrayar enough to tell off Piotr for war crimes. I can see him being off planet a lot, but the "smuggler Xav" thing equally refers to the smuggling network he set up. Or his wife was off planet doing it, and it's a case of a wife's accomplishments being considered her husband's.

 

_I'd guess he was invested in his father's at-the-time "progessive" campaign to unite Barrayar (no more civil wars) but possibly for other or extra reasons than Dorca himself probably started out with (More Imperial Power for Me, Less for Everyone Else)._

Dorca's campaign and Ezar's later reforms actually make a lot of sense when you think about it. To have a civil war, you need an army. If you get rid of Count's armies, they can't use their own armies, they have to subvert yours. The last successful civil war was Piotr and Ezar, and they were both Generals and were in charge of parts of the Imperial army. And then there's Vordarian, who had epic fail, in part because he didn't have the army's loyalty. If you have more proles than Vor in the army, than that's even more of a barrier for ambitious Vor. Of course, it also breeds more problems because, hey, now you have a military where most of the officers are not Vor, but that's Aral and Gregor's problem. ;)


	4. Vorbarra For America meta

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/691542.html?thread=4964182#cmt4964182

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  ****[](https://bessemerprocess.dreamwidth.org/profile)[bessemerprocess](https://bessemerprocess.dreamwidth.org/) : Vorbarra for America commentary? Or maybe just the first time Piotr met Olivia's parents? Or epic stuffed animals?

[Vorbarra For America!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/430578) That was total self-indulgence and all. Basically, Not Prime Time was wide open since there weren't characters specified. But she also requested West Wing, so I was thinking of various ways I could smash Vorkosigan and West Wing together. I couldn't really think of a good one (I was considering stuff going on in the background, maybe something with the the Lord Guardian), so that went to the side and I wrote other stuff. But then I was thinking and I decided, yeah, if this is ever going to work, it does have to be this, doesn't it?

They're all Americans, but I was contemplating flipping it, except then Olivia's mother can't run for President, and it had to be her, not Xav, doing it. So they all ended up Americans, no one's Russian, because it wouldn't work with the premise.

It's sort of Santos-Era-West Wing-ish in that it's about the campaign, but I coudln't remember that much from the Santos stuff; I wasn't watching as much West Wing then as I had been, so I'm not even sure I've ever seen some of those episodes. (I remember them mostly as being TERRIBLY LIT). So it was just the campaign, with kids.

Xav has his canon backstory, mostly, because I have decided that there is no way in hell Xav wasn't a soldier. So Xav was a soldier (and he hates Piotr because he's just like him) and then he became a diplomat. And his wife is interested in trade and this is a world with democracy and women in power, so, yeah, she's doing that.

Olivia ended up at West Point, because this is the least anonymous fic ever. ;) And I'm sure that was good politically for her mother's campaigns, so no one argued.

THE IDEA OF PIOTR VORKOSIGAN TALKING ABOUT COUNTER-INSURGENCY CRACKS ME THE HELL UP. Like, this fic exists for basically no reason than to make those kinds of in-jokes.

I had a bunch of things in there for Sonia's ringtone for the end of it, things like Billy, Don't Be A Hero and One Tin Soldier. I heard 99 Red Balloons on the radio one day and went "yes, going with that one", especially because it had that line about the President.

And I could not resist that joke about the West Wing and not prime time, and this fic is rated R because of the line that their love story is rated R, because I am so meta sometimes. ;)


	5. Petya 'Verse: Inheritance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/1028191.html?thread=6418783#cmt6418783

Inheritance:

This one has a main plot point that I'm fairly certain I made up whole-cloth and has no basis in canon at all, but provides ~~tension~~, which is that to get something passed in the Council of Counts, you don't just need more "yes" votes than "no" votes, you need an actual quorum of "yes" votes, and so an abstention counts as a soft no. We have in canon that absence can prevent a quorum and all that, but a basic idea of this is that "Gregor will vote yes, no one wants to vote against Gregor on something like this, but we still need to get people to agree to vote for this or we won't have enough yes votes". Which can also be handwaved that Gregor would pass on the first round but vote "yes" on the second, but I don't think that works with Petya's math at all :P

 

Speaking of math errors, this one has the nibbling one of did Petya actually hit 20 years or not. If we go by Miles's time, Miles graduates at 20, except I didn't have Petya do that, I kept having him miss school and I also didn't have him graduate until after he'd picked his specialty and done advanced training; this is basically handwaved as "curriculum stuff changes in the Regency", but yeah, Petya is older than 20 when he graduates. ALSO in Komarr, Miles is mentioned as having spent 13 years in the military, but he's actually only spent 10 since graduation, it's counting the Academy years. So are the Academy years counted for the 20? Probably not. EXCEPT that Petya is doing things like fighting riots while still at the academy, do those count? ...Probably not. Anyway, the math is wonky, but the math on all of this is a little wonky. Considering that I started this thing thinking that Petya would be like 10 or so, iirc, during the invasion of Komarr... yeah, math is gonna be bad :P So, yeah, anyway, Petya has probably not hit 20 years, except he might have, who knows, I don't :P But Petya says he has, so let's go with it, even though it's probably wrong and I should have edited it to him nearly having hit 20.


	6. Petya 'Verse: The Hospital Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/1028191.html?thread=6418783#cmt6418783

The Hospital Visit! This one contains:

1) one of the times I had to keep adding privilege because I was definitely understating the sheer amount of privilege here,  
and, 2) one of my favorite Petya lines

which is:

> Vortala curses at him under his breath as he walks away. Ivan hesitates, then says, "I'm with Colonel Vortala on this one, Petya."
> 
> "I don't disagree with him," Petya says. "But I don't disagree with my father. It puts me in an awkward position, you understand. 

AKA, "I completely agree with Vortala, but I'm not allowed to disagree with the Prime Minister".

 

ALSO:

> "So long as you don't stage an invasion of Vorkosigan House to arrest Mark in the mean time, certainly," Petya says. "And, please, continue to consider the consequences of upsetting the Countess."
> 
> "I do," Vortala says. "Believe me, I do.

AKA, yes, I do consider that one consequence of upsetting the Countess is she might cut my head off.

 

In the background of this is Gregor positioning Petya to make him Regent if needed, just happily noodling in the background to promote Petya nepositically as much as possible. Which is one of those things that Petya later contemplates and goes "ffs, Gregor, you could have just asked". (If Gregor had just asked, Petya would have said no.)

 

Ivan is also probably? the first person chronologically to find out that Petya is gay who was not 1) told by Petya, or 2) told by spies (Piotr, Aral, etc, were all told by spies). Ivan did this through being the spy himself and finding a love letter.

And this is in with him finding out about Serg just by being quiet and paying attention when everyone thinks he's an idiot so they're not careful about him, because it's just Ivan. Ivan figures out a lot. And he maintains the idiot facade and doesn't let on that he knows.

 

I am also EXTREMELY inconsistent on if Petya calls Aral "da" or "dad". This was something I was aware of when writing it and mostly just went with "okay as long as I'm consistent WITHIN a fic, I'm okay" and then I was not, um, consistent within a fic. :P In my own defense, I think Miles isn't consistent either? IDK, it's been a while since I looked at that detail.

> It occurs to Ivan that he knows nothing about Petya's career that Uncle Aral didn't boast about over dinner, or that he hasn't managed to pick up by osmosis in reading over reports from whichever embassy Lord Vorkosigan has been gracing with his presence this tour. The diplomatic services have kept Petya moving around, Ivan realizes suddenly, and, abruptly, he wonders if there's more to Petya's ImpSec file than him being the Prime Minister's son and therefore being a political person of interest. Diplomatic Corps used to mean spy, after all. "Petya," Ivan asks carefully, "is there anything ImpSecish going on that I should know about?"

Re: if Petya's a spy: Petya is not a spy, a fact about which he is eternally very disappointed. But it amuses the hell out of me that other people may not entirely be sure one way or another. Also, the bit about no one knowing for sure what Vortala does, because, yeah, moving things around, sure, fine, but yeah, everyone's like "okay, he's high up in ImpSec... which is the secret police... and he does... something... idk, man, he's important".

Also, I think Petya has ZERO IDEA that Aral used to boast about him over dinner.

> Ivan wonders how many dead mother stories Petya had had to deal with, if they'd ever made him angry the way it sometimes made Ivan, when people were describing their friend when Ivan really wanted them to be describing his father.

Ivan, my darling, Petya never got a dead mother story in his entire life.

I am honestly not sure how much Petya actually knows about his mom other than that she cheated on Aral and died. None of the Vorkosigans were gonna tell him stories, Piotr kept him away from the Vorrutyers as much as possible during his earliest years, and then even still, I don't think Petya's grandparents were telling him much about his dead and dishonored mother, and Ges, once he got the opportunities, was doing his best to groom Petya. No one was telling him charming stories about his mother's childhood. Everyone was doing their best to forget his mother existed except when it was useful to them.

> But at least people remember that Ivan doesn't have a father. Sometimes, Ivan thinks, with Uncle Aral's remarriage, people would completely forget that there had been a first marriage if Petya wasn't around to remind everyone about it.

Most people in canon by Mirror Dance probably have forgotten that Aral was ever married the first time around. It's been fifty years. There's probably some old dude whispering that, hey, a long time ago, everyone said that Aral killed his wife, and someone else says, no he didn't, Cordelia Vorkosigan is still alive, I saw her yesterday.

One thing about Petya existing, and this goes along with Inheritance as well, is that it keeps Aral's first marriage, and how it ended, more known. It's harder to bury Aral's shameful past when one consequence of it is wandering around.


End file.
